No patch notes today: this is our development roadmap from here to 1.0, and a bit of an explanation of how we're changing the way Breachway gets updated.
Up to now we've been shipping medium-sized patches that each touched a bit of everything. That kept the game moving, but it made it hard to see where it's all going, for you and honestly for us as well.
Going forward we're splitting development into three tracks:
- Major updates. Named, themed updates, each built around one headline feature. These are the ones worth coming back for, and they're what this roadmap is about.
- Weekly balance patches. Small, frequent, and driven by real data. This is where we look at anonymized run telemetry every week (win rates, what's killing you, what nobody ever picks) and tune numbers accordingly. No big system changes in these, no forced run resets.
- Weekly bug fixes. Shipping right alongside the balance patches, and driven by you: what you report on Discord and the Steam forums is what gets fixed first. Run-killers and soft-locks always jump the queue.
The Roadmap
One thing you won't find below is hard dates. We're a very small team and we'd rather ship things solid than ship them on a deadline.
The order is set, but estimations get more vague the further away they are. We'll update this roadmap after every major update, so you can always see what's next.
Update 1 - The Commander Update: controller support & quality of life - August
The next major update, and the one we can talk about in detail because it's nearly done.
- Full controller support: menu to hangar to combat, playable on gamepad. This has been the most-requested feature for a long time, and it's been a genuinely long road. It also takes us a big step toward a proper Steam Deck verified status.
- Unlock rework: unlocking ships, equipment, and cards is getting dramatically faster and smoother. We've heard you on this one, the grind between unlocks was too long, especially early. The whole pacing curve has been redesigned.
- Randomize starting loadout: one button in the hangar to shuffle your starting setup, for those of you who want that bit of extra challenge.
- Accessibility & UI: tooltip fixes, a more color-blind-friendly palette, and eliminating most annoying UI issues.
- Combat value previews: this is another big one, drag a card out and see exactly what it will do before you commit, the game has a lot going on as-is, even without the added mental math.
- Precision lasers update: The Pulse and Light lasers are getting some new cards, a more focused drafting library, a new mechanic, and upgradable cards
- Performance & stability: a batch of fixes for hitches, freezes, and soft-locks, plus in-game patch notes so you can see what changed without leaving the game.
Update 2 - The Tactician Update: build variety & combat depth - October
- The headline for this is equipment transformation, giving you ways to switch out the drafting library of an equipment you're carrying mid-run, with one from the same equipment family. This means you can pivot and refine your equipment later into the game, instead of being locked into a specific setup early.
- Another one we're really excited about is more enemy equipment states, something that will open up more enemy types, greater combat diversity, and will truly make Railguns shine. We'll go into more detail on this soon.
- We'll also release two new precision laser weapons, including the devastating late-game Hyperlaser!
- You can also expect a set of new enemies that test your builds in interesting new ways, more equipment families brought up to the quality bar of the recent Flak rework, and a streamlined tutorial.
Update 3 - The Navigator Update - Winter 2026
The star map becomes more alive: More variety in how sectors are populated with events, a revamped quest system, many more things to find out there in new events, and encounters that react to who controls the space you're flying through. We think this is the update that changes how runs feel the most.
This is also the update that finally lets your crew gain experience and level up.
Update 4 - The Explorer Update - Start of 2027
The story starts taking shape. What is the Signal? Why are you chasing it? This update begins a story arc that unfolds across your runs as the stakes escalate. We will also add a Story Mode option so nobody gets locked out of the narrative.
This is also when we introduce our first themed sector, which will be the testing bed for our next major update.
Update 5 - The Bounty-Hunter Update - Spring 2027
Enemies and factions get finalized: More enemies, more events, faction bounty contracts with special rewards, and clusters with much stronger identities. More on this when we're closer.
1.0 - The Signal Update - Mid 2027
We're keeping the story's conclusion for the full launch, the final chapters of the Signal arc, and some other things we're not going to spoil.
This is the big one, everything leading up to this builds up across the updates above, so we can deliver on the promise we made with Breachway.
What about right now?
The weekly balance patches have already started, and will keep going, informed by the telemetry work we've been doing behind the scenes.
Occasionally we'll also release new enemies and equipment revamps as part of weekly patches, but since that will require a reset of current runs, we'll mention ahead of time when that is the case.
The goals are set, and the path is clear, we're more energized than ever to bring Breachway to launch. It's been a long road, and we still have a ways to go, but we truly couldn't have gotten this far without our players' support and involvement, we're grateful to have such an amazing community.
We're looking forward to discussions about which update you are most excited about, and what's you think is missing from it.
As always, your Steam reviews, bug reports, and feedback on Discord are what point us in the right direction.
Thanks for sticking with us through Early Access. o7
The Breachway Team
